Humble Beginnings

I'm not sure what it is about this weekend, I suppose playing EverQuest yesterday has brought a lot of old gaming memories to the surface. In this case one game in particular.

After a quick youtube check to make sure I wasn't just imaginging it, I downloaded an emulator, tracked down the ROM and prepared myself for the "...full throttle thrill of Cobra Triangle!"

I had played the game quite a bit when I was young, I'm pretty sure I finished it but honestly can't remember. The stages will load in a different sequence each time you play so it's hard to tell sometimes.

Cobra Triangle is one of the more unique games for the NES. Granted, it's more or less just a one player RC Pro-Am on water but that's not really a bad thing. It's an isometric boat racing/shooting game with some bonus levels and boss fights thrown in, as well as the odd stationary level that feels almost like a game of Asteroids at times.

If you've got nothing to do today, give it a try. It's not too hard to find the Rom and there are plenty of good emulators out there. It's one of those rare games (no pun intended) that makes you want to keep hitting continue just to prove you can beat it. Those evil monochrome enemy boats are just so smug in their silence. I also find it curious how the situation you're in is completely ridiculous, and devoid of any logical plot, but somehow you're still happy to just go with it.

It's also a good opportunity to see where the studio that brought you games like Donkey Kong Country, Battle Toads and of course - Goldeneye on N64 - had it's beginnings.

Rare is one of the oldest game developers whose doors are still open and while unfortunately the founders have long gone, and Rare has become what sometimes feels like a studio that just develops tech demos for the Xbox 360 (Kinect Sports: Season Two!) I guess that's just a sign of the times.

So I'll take my Sunday morning to play one for Rare, the once great development studio that brought me one of my favorite games of all time - Killer Instinct - and hope that the Stamper Brothers who in my ten minutes of Internet research seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth are out there enjoying themselves, and just incase they Google themselves and somehow find their way here - I thought Perfect Dark was great, and I'll always have fond memories of Marble Madness but I'll probably never forgive you for Killer Instinct Gold :)